ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs, and Their Applications (CUAVA), University of Sydney, School

Contact Person

agm50@me.com.nospam

Headline Details: CUAVA-1 is a 3U CubeSat and the first CubeSat project of the new
ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs, and
Their Applications (CUAVA), whose primary aim
is the education and training of people, mostly
PhD students, for the space sector. With
significant heritage from the QB50 CubeSat
INSPIRE-2, CUAVA-1 is a 3U CubeSat that will
link with the international radio amateur
community for outreach, training, and increased
data downloads, observe the Earth with a
novel multi-spectral imager, use a GPS
instrument to explore radio occultation and the
reception of GPS signals scattered off the Earth
as well as provide a backup determination of
the CubeSat location, investigate
plasma environment and associated
space weather with radiation detectors, and
explore the performance of a new
communications payload.
This mission addresses issues of radio
technique interesting to the radio amateur
community in the following ways.
1) Global Radio Amateur Participation in
Mission and Data Downlinking
We will work with radio amateurs and other
groups to receive and decode the spacecraft
beacon and downlinked data, with subsequent
transfer to the internet database (ideally the
SatNOGS database). In detail, the CubeSat will
transmit data, especially recent images over the
terrestrial footprint, to participating radio
amateurs across the globe. This will directly
involve radio amateurs in the mission and its
success, by greatly increasing the overall amount
of downlinked data available and having the
images be directly relevant to the receiving
people. The receiving station and people would
be identified in the database and then
acknowledged in any publications resulting. The
mission’s success will thus be directly tied to the
involvement of the international radio amateur
community. In addition, the mission should
provide multiple opportunities for enhanced
outreach and training for both the global amateur
radio satellite communities and CUAVA.
2) Student and Radio Amateur Participation
in the Groundstation
We will train students and desiring radio
amateurs in the setup and use of a groundstation
hosted by the University of Sydney and then have
these people operate the groundstation (including
control of the satellite and managing the uplink
and downlink) and transfer downlinked data into
an internet database (ideally the SatNOGS
database). This will involve existing radio clubs
in the training, increasing their memberships and
leading to new clubs and people familiar with the
international radio amateur and satellite
communities.
3) Radio Wave Propagation
The ionosphere, thermosphere, and lower
atmosphere have multiple effects on the
propagation and absorption of radio waves and
microwaves. This mission will study the electron
number density as a function of position, time of
day, and space weather events using the ``radio
occultation’’ of GPS signals and their associated
refraction and attenuation. These data will be
published and made available for ionospheric
research via a website, and provided to
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology and other
space weather organisations worldwide. These
data are used to predict maximum and minimum
usable frequencies for radio amateurs (and both
commercial and government users). In addition,
the GPS signal attenuation and electron number
density profiles can be used to extract the
amount of water as a function of height and
used to predict ordinary weather. This work will
also add to knowledge of the orbital
environment via the drag forces and decay of
satellites depending on the gas and plasma
densities.
4) Communication Protocols
Modulation techniques that will be investigated
for the high-speed communications experiment
include QPSK, 16-QAM and CPFM. If successful,
this technology for wavelengths below 10 cm will
increase the data transfer rates by at least 4
orders of magnitude while also decreasing the
sizes of antennas and the associated spacecraft.
This experiment will be relevant to spacecraft-toground
and inter-spacecraft communication links
and is particularly relevant to radio amateurs,
universities, and their students and staff, due to
the dramatic increases in data rates and
capabilities and associated dramatic reductions
in costs. In addition, the use of multiple
frequencies is important for rain (and moisture
content) attenuation mitigation techniques, as
well as to provide another data stream for
weather prediction.
5) Radiation Effects on Electronic
Components
The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environment is
protected from cosmic rays, solar particles, and
particles trapped in the Van Allen Belts by
Earth’s magnetic field. Some portions of LEO do
harbour regions of enhanced radiation, in the
auroral zones and the South Atlantic Anomaly
(SAA) for example. In addition, transient solar
and magnetospheric particle energization
events, a major component of space weather,
can change the radiation level by orders of
magnitude. This radiation can adversely affect
spacecraft which pass through them. This
mission will directly measure the counts of
energetic particles as a function of space
weather activity, position, and time of day,
thereby characterising the Earth’s radiation
environment. It will also study the effects of the
radiation on the computer and other onboard
electronics. Examples of effects include single
event upsets (SEUs), degraded solar cells, and
non-functioning electronics such as radio
receivers and transmitters.
6) Attitude and Position Determination
Reception and analysis of GPS signals by the onboard
GPS receiver will determine the
spacecraft’s attitude and location as a function
of time, thereby determining the satellite’s orbit.
Comparisons with NORAD radar-derived orbits
will test the on-board GPS receiver and measure
drag and other effects. These orbits are vital for
radio amateurs interested in testing and
characterising their radio equipment, as well as
in downloading the satellite beacon and data
signals for transmission via the web to the
satellite project and the international
community. Proposing to downlink telemetry on 9k6 GMSK AX25 on UHF and high speed downlinks on 2.4 GHz, 5.6 GHz and 76 GHz. Planning a launch from Japan in July 2019 into a 400km orbit. More info from http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/ **The following downlinks have been coordinated: 437.075 MHz, 2404.000 MHz, 5840 MHz and 76.800 GHz. Also uplinks on 145.875 MHz, 2404.000 MHz and
5660.000 MHz**

Application Date:

20 Feb 2019

Freq coordination completed on

09 Apr 2019

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